Thus the total number of active men which the three divisions of the Levites yielded was 8580. When en- camped around the tabernacle, they formed, as it were, a partition between the people and the sanctuary ; they had so to guard it that the children of Israel should not come near it, since those who ventured to do so incurred the penalty of death (Numb, i, 51 ; iii, 38; xviii, 22) ; nor were they themselves allowed to come near the ves- sels of the sanctuary and the altar, lest they die, as well as the priests (Numb, xviii, 3-G). Israelites of any other tribe were strictly forbidden to perform the Levit- ical office, in order '• that there might be no plague when the children of Israel approach the sanctuarj'" (Numb, iii, 10 ; viii, 19; xviii, 5) ; and, according to the ancient Hebrew canons, even a priest was not allowed to do the work assigned to the Levites, nor was one Levite per- mitted to perform the duties which were incumbent upon his felloAv Levite under penalty of death (^laimon- ides, Ililchoth Kele Ila-Mikdush, iii, 10).
The book of Deuteronomy is interesting as indicating more clearly than had Ijeen done before the other func- tions, over and above their ministrations in the taber- nacle, wliich were to be allotted to the tribe of Levi. Through the whole land they were to take the place of the old household priests (subject, of course, to the special riglits of the Aaronic priesthood), sharing in all festivals and rtgoicings (Deut. xii, 19; xiv, 26, 27; xxvi, 11). Every third year they were to have an additional share hi the produce of the land (Deut. xiv, 28; xxvi, 12). The people were charged never to forsake them. To " the priests the Levites" was to belong the office of pre- serving, transcribing, and interpreting the law (Deut. xvii, 9-12; xxxi, 26). They were solemnly to read it every seventh year at the Feast of Tabernacles (Deut. xxxi, 9-13). They were to pronounce the curses from Mount Ebal (Deut. xxvii, 14).
Such, if one may so speak, was the ideal of the relig- ious organization which was present to the mind of the lawgiver. Details were left to be developed as the al- tered circumstances of the people might require. The great principle was, that the warrior -caste who had guarded the tent of the captain of the hosts of Israel should be throughout the land as witnesses that the people still owed allegiance to him. It deserves notice that, as yet, with the exception of the few passages that refer to the priests, no traces appear of their character as a learned caste, and of the work which afterwards be- longed to them as hymn-writers and musicians. The hymns of this period were probably occasional, not re- curring (comp. Exod. XV ; Numb, xxi, 17 ; Deut. xxxii). Women bore a large share in singintj them ( Exod. xv, 20; Psa. Ixviii, 25). It is not unlikely that the wives Olid daughters of the Levites, who must have been with them in all their encampments, as afterwards in their cities, took the foremost part among the " damsels play-
ing with their timbrels." or among the " wise-hearted," wlio wove hangings for the decoration of the tabernacle. There are, at any rate, signs of their presence there in the mention of the " women that assembled" at its door (Exod. xxxviii, 8, and comp. Ewald, A Iterthilm. p. 297).
5. Consecration of the Levites, — The first act in the consecration of the Levites was to sprinkle them with the water of purifying (nXIJn i73), which, according to tradition, was the same used for the purification of per- sons who became defiled by dead bodies, and in which were mingled cedar-wood, hyssop, scarlet, and ashes of the red heifer (Numb, xix, 6, 9, 13), and was designed to cleanse them from the same defilement (comp. Raslii, On Numb, viii, 7). They had, in the next place, as an emblem of further purification, to shave off all the hair from their body, " to teach thereby," as Ralbag says, " that they must renounce, as much as was in their power, all worldly things, and devote themselves to the service of the most high God," and then wash their gar- ments. After this triple form of purification, they were brought before the door of the tabernacle, along with two bullocks and thie fiour mingled with oil, when the whole congregation, through the elders who represented them, laid their hands upon the heads of the Levites, and set them apart for the service of the sanctuary, to occupy the place of the first-born of the whole congre- gation; whereupon the priests waved them before the Lord (Numb, viii, 5-14), which in all probability was done, as Abrabanel says, by leading them forward and backward, up and down, as if saying. Behold, these are henceforth the servants of the Lord, instead of the first- born of the children of Israel. ' The part which the whole congregation took in this consecration is a very important feature in the Hebrew constitution, inasmuch as it most distinctly shows that the Levitical order pro- caededj'roni the midst oj' the people (Exod. xxvLii,!), was to be regarded as essentially identical with it, and not as a sacred caste standing in proud eminence above the rest of the nation. This principle of equality, which, according to the Mosaic law, was not to be infringed by the introduction of a priesthood or monarchy (Deut. xvii, 14-20), was recognised throughout the existence of the Hebrew commonwealth, as is evident from the fact that the representatives of the people took part in the coronation of kings and the instalment of high- priests (1 Kings ii, 35 ; with 1 Chron. xxix, 32), and even in the daj's of the Maccabees we see that it is the people who installed Simon as high-priest (1 Maccab. xiv, 35).